I curse my very name under my horsed breath, for my lack of foresight, for my lack of control . . .

. . . and most of all for my inability to save the world I call home. The world of Elysia is no more, vanished before mine very eyes, with only the faintest of gestures from the world’s “creator”, the self-styled Lord of Lies, Mephisto. Now, with the back ground of the heavens to serve only as silent witness to the events – to the confrontation that is bound to follow – Mephisto lords over me, standing there in all his demonic glory. A tribute to death and decay, he is, without doubt, leaving little room for debate.

I find myself bound in some fashion, unable to move, and if I was a being that needed to breath in order to maintain my very survival I would not doubt for a moment that I would not even be able to perform such a simplistic task. Since it seemed to appear as if I could hardly concentrate at all, let alone perform even the most remedial task.

For all my rage was directed to the beast before me, mocking me, cursing my name.

“Do you not realized, Surfer?” Mephisto continued onward with his unceasing attempt to increasing my ever mounting rage with his words. I struggled, to no avail. “That the events of your life for the last twenty or so years has been orchestrated, molded by some unseen hand? My hand! The death of your beloved . . . your aimless wonderings throughout the cosmos, finding no solace in the stars that once spurred you onward in the name of all that is holy and pure . . . the very creation of this world, this Eden! All of it was of my creation, all done at my whim, my command. The beast’s appearance, making you think that it was attracted in some manner to your arrival, the daughter’s presence outside the ‘safe’ confines of her abode. Oh, and by the way, you naming the child Shalla Bal, instead of Norrin Radd, in honor to your beloved . . . very heart warming, brought a tear to me eye, in fact.” He continued to mock my actions, displaying a façade of tears were collecting over his colorless eyes, then whipping them away. Suddenly without warning nor prelude the façade, along with the tears evaporated and he continued to gloat, all the time rage mounting in my bosom, screaming to be released ‘pon his sickly form. “Even . . .” his tone suddenly dropped several octaves to a conspiratorial whisper “ . . . even, taking possession of the Punisher construct’s physical form, in order to lull your former master to this world, an accomplishment I still relish, and savor, as seemingly unimpressive as it may be, in the grand scheme.”

“Why . . . ?” I managed the pressure being exerted on my form mounting creating the illusion that my words were horsed, thick, that I was near my wit’s unnote-worthy end.

“Is it not clear!?”

“Cease speaking in riddles, demon!” I shouted. “Answer me now!”

“And indeed I shall,” Mephisto grinned. “Make no mistake, I do so only because it suits my purposes, and not that you commanded me to do so – as if you are in such a mass position to dictate ideal threats to one so great in power and prestige as I.” With a snap of his fingers space around the two of us shattered as would a pain of glass, the shards descended upon my form, tearing away the sheen of protective power cosmic to ribbons, so that the Silver Surfer . . . I was no more! In his steed was only the now nude and battered form of Norrin Radd. In replacement for the celestial heavens, now stood the dark décor of death, Mephisto’s realm, no doubt. And where my bonds were unseen to mine eyes, now stood pillars of jagged, obsidian rock, lancing from the very surface of the ground, making their presence known through my blistering pale skin. And I bled. The thick crimson red ichor of my life’s blood rushed from the wounds that had been created when the heavens themselves – if it can be called such a thing, since at this point I dare not assume anything to be fact – shattered around me, somehow stripping me of my power . . .

My power cosmic!

It was no more! My kinship to the stars and the very fabric of reality that too was gone, no longer was I simply Norrin Radd, once more in appearance, yet also in being as well, for the cosmic power that I once possessed and control was no more.

“What have you done . . . ?”

“Broken your spirit. It is no secret that in all the universe I have sought your soul to be placed in higher regard than any other in existence. For yours is a noble one in nature. Untouched, untainted, even by my best efforts! You have undone all attempts and overtures in possessing your soul by force. So I decided a new approach was needed in order to claim the prize that I so rightfully sought after, that I yearned to possess! I decided to allow you to freely give in to my demands. Unknowingly? Yes. Yet freely, nonetheless.”

“I did no such thing!”

“Did you?”

“No, I did not, demon!”

“I beg to differ. When you found out that Shalla Bal was dead, you wished to follow her, even making a pact in order to court Death, herself. In essence you became suicidal. Yet, you never gave in to your temptations. I knew then that I would have to employ every trick in the book, if you were to succumb. So I did, I started in creating this world, and ‘incidentally’ drawing you near to her. Not an easy task I assure you, yet in the end, as you can tell, well worth the price in power and most importantly time.”

“What of those souls, those people on that world? What dark fate has befallen them!?”

“They were never alive to begin with.” Mephisto paused, for a moment, the continued as if for dramatic effect. I was not impressed. “Once they had existed in the mortal world. Then they perished at my whim, for the soul purpose of performing their . . . as I told them when I proclaimed myself, Ardra, their god . . . their destiny. Then a mass suicide ensured, as I instructed them to do so. I searched their souls, individually testing them one by one, to see those who would be the best to serve me and my aim. Yet none came close to the soul I needed to befriend you, and serve as conceal to you, none seemed worthy enough. So, I being the gracious host that I am, took it upon myself to perform that role: In the form of Bahrnul.”

“You bastard!”

“Still your tongue!”

And then I found that my ability to speak was then curbed! As was the power to move, even in the slightest. And he continued with his mundane intercourse on how my life was a fabrication and I did not even know of his presence.

Have I grown that weak of character of late?

Have I devolved somehow due to Shalla Bal’s passing?

Or was I always so weak, so . . . a being without nobility and honor, truths that . . . truths that my former self held to be self-evident?

I have run away from everything since her death. And into the hands of one who is on par with the evil of Satan, himself, in doing so. I have become weak, that much is certain, I have even re-forged an alliance with my former master. I should be ashamed. I have disgraced myself. I have brought dishonor to myself, to my people, to all things that matter to me the most, and most of all I have brought shame to my beloved.

I have shamed Shalla Bal, and that is disgrace I can not bare to be weighted under.

And it was at that moment that I wondered: Do I deserve this fate?

Could it be retribution for my past sins as herald to the World Devourer? Or simply a cosmic irony being played out by a demonic laughing god at my expense?

I know not the answers.

And I care not to possess them.

All these thoughts and more hold’s dominion over my conscious mind. It is at this time that I realized I have not even heard of Mephisto’s continuing ranting. For I have heard it many a time in the past, and I care not to hear it more, from many a creature thinking that they have bested be in some manner or form, mostly from Mephisto himself, or abominations akin to his wicked vile. Granted, the circumstances may vary from time to time, and the phrasing of the words will changing with time’s passage, and the happenstance sometimes contrast though the underline meaning never changes, always the same. And over time, one loses interest, and dwells not on the meaning of what said abomination is focusing on yet what is happening within one’s very soul – it is either that or I grow mad with utter boredom. And that is a situation I wish to avoid at all coasts. And from time to time certain words or references to certain situations will strike an accord within my being and I will find myself reliving once more those circumstances. Though even those fleeting memories blur with time’s unrelenting touch.

Then, out of no where, he said something that provoked a fire, a passion to burn in my heart, my eyes widen and my once glazed over gaze, a tell tale sign of distance, evaporates, along with the seemingly uncaring façade of an expression that had staked clam to my visage shortly after the ability to speak was taken from me. My eyes flare with a deadly focus, as I intently bore my gaze 'pon the creature’s form. My face mirrors the question within my soul “What did you say?” is clear and present, and when Mephisto suddenly stops his unnerving pacing back and forth in his realm, I know he has taken note of the unspoken question.

He stops abruptly. And smiles widely at the situation, resting a hand on his chest as if lost in his own thought, trying to find hi was from out of the surreal and into reality once more. “Oh,” he exclaims a breath of rancid, brimstone filled air. He mouthed his last few sentences as if he were trying to revoke the words he was saying to strike such a response from my person, when he knew well, damn well of what my unspoken response was all along, he was merely playing to the masses now, for his own entertainment. Perverse as it is. “You mean when I made reference to how wonderful the pleasures of the flesh were when your beloved and I shared a rather intimate moment? Is that what has provoked you, Norrin Radd? Yes, it must be,” he said answering his own posed question without a moment’s beat or reprieve.

No . . .

“She was a demon when it came to exploring the carnal pleasures that sexuality had to offer, I must say. Even places a few of my own sexual demons, here in my own realm, to shame in terms of sheer . . . villainous in such circumstances. She even placed the demonic version of Hellcat to shame, and I did so enjoy the pleasure she created for my lions, a pleasure Shalla Bal only magnified a thousand fold.”

No.

“It is no wonder why she has become your beloved over the years, and not Alicia Masters or Mantis and whatever feminine love interest you may have had in your . . . shall we say exploits. And through it all she thought that I was her beloved, her Norrin Radd, little did she know that I was her beloved’s greatest archrival, evil incarnate as it were.”

No!

“Though I did reveal to her my true identity, in order to see her reaction, mind you. And when our let stroll into her inner pleasures reached its rather intimate climax, its unforgettable conclusion I made my presence known to her, the façade that was Norrin Radd vanished and she saw me for who I was for the first time.”

No!

“And do you know what she did?” He paused for a moment, his eyes closed, and he fought the urge to run his serpent-style tongue across his lips as his mind’s eye replayed the events for him once more. “I’ll tell you, she fought me not the slightest, in fact she embraced me once more, even more so this time. She was an animal!”

“No!”

I do not know still to this day what occurred in that moment. My rage reached its highest piques during his describing of events I had not even suspected, yet should have. And my bounds shattered, once more, the Power Cosmic returned to be an in force.

Mephisto was taken aback as the bonds that held me in place shattered with only a small fraction of my power. And was even more surprised when I summoned my board, that had been shattered moments earlier.

My body was no more that of Norrin Radd’s appearance. . . .

I was the Silver Surfer once more!

Power Cosmic pools surrounded my stoic form, and I rose an accusing hand in the direction of Mephisto.

And he trembled before my awe-inspiring might.

And when I spoke my words made his entire realm shutter in fear, fear that not even this realm’s master could provoke with his greatest feats of power, I did with mere words and force of will.

“Mephisto! Too often has the Surfer heard you mouth words of arrogant triumph! Yet time and again I have bested you, Black Hearted fiend. Just as I will best you once more. For the last time!”

And with but an outpouring of a fraction of my Power Cosmic, Hell was shattered into only fractions of the mighty, demonic glory it once possessed. I closed in on Mephisto, my target, my prey, my shadow, looming over his normally impressive form, now he recoiled in fear, his eyes wide, and horror was ever present. It was at that moment I could not help to smile, demonic intent clear and present on my features.

Concluded in Tainting Eden: Conclusion

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